At present, bowls and dishes are produced by gouging or carving out woodchips or shavings from a wooden blank or billet. Typically, the wooden blank is cylindrical in shape and a chisel-like tool is used to gouge out the core of the blank thereby producing a bowl-like object.
The toolrest on most lathes comprises an upstanding bar which is adjustable in position relative to the workpiece on which the tool may be freely supported, or steadied, by the turner, or which may provide for limited restraint such as one or more grooves to locate the tool, or a sleeve in which to slide the tool towards or away from the workpiece.
However, a number of disadvantages are associated with the existing methods of removing cores from wood blanks. In particular, in the chiselling method the wooden core is removed from a blank using a chiselling action. This is both time consuming, difficult and very wasteful as the core removed is in the form of shavings which cannot be used for further wood turning processes.
In another method the core is removed in the form of a cone. However, this is a difficult operation. As the core is removed the cutting tool becomes obscured from view with the danger of kickback if the tool jams. The cone removed is also wasteful of wood as the wood blank remaining on the lathe contains a conical interior which must then be turned or tooled to provide a cylindrical or rounded interior. The wood removed in this process is also in the form of shavings and so is also wasteful.
Although the cone removed from the blank may then be reused it is necessary to remove the sharp point from the cone so that the cone may be remounted on a lathe and a second wood turning operation performed on it. A sufficiently thick base must be left on the blank to avoid damage when the cone is knocked out, which may be undesirable, requiring further turning and waste to form a thinner base.
In addition, when the cone is being removed from the blank it is usually necessary to drive a wedge in between the gap between the cone and the walls of the blank and this frequently results in splitting of the wood and the bowl formed is therefore useless.
A further disadvantage associated with removing a core in the form of a cone from a wood blank is that the core must be relatively large if another bowl is to be formed from the core. Clearly, where the original blank is relatively small the possible uses of the core which is removed from the blank are limited.
Accordingly, a need exists for a wood turning device which reduces wood wastage, and is safe and easy to use. As the necessity for conservation of exotic and/or hardwoods increases, there is a greater incentive to minimise waste.